Visiting Pompeii: How to get to Pompeii from Rome

Before traveling to Italy, Pompeii has been on my Bucket list since I was a kid and watched a documentary on Discovery Channel about it. It was definitely worth a visit, and here I will teach you how to get to Pompeii from Rome, or to Pompeii from Naples since to get to the ruins, you have to make your way to Naples first anyways.

For those who love visiting ruins and learning more about the past of our civilization, a day trip to Pompeii is a must for everybody visiting Rome, and as I fit this classification, I knew I had to visit Pompeii at some point in my life. So when I finally went to Italy, I took this opportunity to go to Pompeii as a day trip from Rome.

Pompeii is located close to Naples, it is a huge ruin site from ancient times, if you wish to visit the site completely you would need to plan at least one complete day to do so, and spend the night in Naples, to make it less tiring, otherwise, you can easily take a train to Pompeii from Rome, and visit the ancient city as a day trip.

Of course, you have options of taking a day tour to Pompeii leaving from the capital however, I found it quite hard to find a tour that would take you from your hotels, instead, there are many tours leaving from Piazza del Popolo, and some that you have to make your way to Naples by yourself, and meet the tor group in Napoli Centrale Station.

In my case, it was way easier to go there by ourselves, since our hotel was close to the Colosseum, and pretty far away from Piazza del Popolo, and nobody wanted to wake up early. Turned out it was definitely the best option.

The tour is short and it can be done in one hour if you don’t get out of the bus. Of course it will not be enough to see everything in the city, however, you will able to visit the main attractions and get a taste of Naples.

Some people also prefer to overnight in Naples instead of visiting Pompeii as a day trip from Rome. The issue with this is that first, sometimes you don’t have time for that, and second the price. Everything in Italy is expensive, to be honest, for me, it was the most expensive country I have been to so far. So no reason to overnight in Naples if your goal is just to visit Pompeii.

Napoli Centrale to Pompeii

Anyways, once you find yourself in Napoli Centrale, you will need to look for the Circumvesuviana line there are plates all over showing you the way.

From the ground floor, where you will arrive, the Cicuvesuviana line is just downstairs. They are definitely the most beautiful or clean trains you have ever seen, but well, they do the job. The train leaves the station every hour and takes around 40 minutes to arrive at Pompeii’s entrance.

Cicuvesuviana line

The Circumvesuviana line links Napoli Centrale to different areas around the city, including Herculano, which is another famous ruins, it is one of the cities that were destroyed by the same eruption as Pompeii. If you wish to spend more days in Napoli you can visit Herculano as a day trip, another time.

I do not recommend to visit Herculano and Pompeii on the same day as both ruins take some time to be appreciated and a visit to any of them can be pretty tiring. Pompeii by itself is huge, believe me, you don’t have an idea of how big it is until you get there.

Arriving in Pompeii

The Circumvesuviana line also stops right in from of the entrance for the ruins of Pompeii, the stop is called Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri. There is no mistake, once you get out of the train, you will see the gates.

You can buy skip-the-line tickets on your way from the station to the entrance, really recommended if you are visiting Pompeii in the high season, as it normally has a long line to get inside the site, however, if it is not high season, you can totally buy your ticket at the entrance, in the Ticket Office.

There are many things that you will want to see there, including important houses, ancient streets and even the well-preserved colosseum, and these things are normally located far away from themselves and you will have to walk a lot to be able to see them, so especially if you are visiting Pompeii in the Summer, be prepared, don’t forget your comfortable shoes and a bottle of water!

This same Circumvesuviana line has as last stop Sorrento, another tourist city worth visit in Italy, so if you are spending more days in Naples, or even Rome, you can add Sorrento to your itinerary and follow the same route to get to the city, or if Sorrento is already in your itinerary, this is the route you will have to take to get there.

When you feel like coming back to Rome, you just need to do all this trip, again, the other way around! Easy as pie.

I highly recommend visiting Pompeii as a day trip on your own, it gives you more freedom to see everything, without the pressure of having a group waiting for you, plus, if you want a guide, you can always hire one in the site.

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